1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a medicine discharge device and a cartridge mountable thereto, the device being carried by a user and configured to discharge medicine to be inhaled by the user. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique for safely using a medicine discharge device for healthcare etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A treatment for a user with the combination of a medicine discharge device that discharges medicine to be inhaled by the user and an information database such as an electronic medical chart is being realized. Such a medicine discharge device includes a storage unit for storing information related to an individual user, the information including information of user's medical chart and prescription. The medicine discharge device is a handheld device also serving as an inhaler that allows the user to inhale the medicine. The medicine discharge device has a discharge controller that controls the inhaler to discharge the medicine so that the user may inhale the medicine in accordance with the information of prescription (see International Publication Nos. WO95/01137 and WO02/04043).
With this medicine discharge device, an amount of medicine administered may be properly managed in accordance with the prescription. Accordingly, medical equipment such as a syringe is no longer necessary for the administration of the medicine. The user may operate the medicine discharge device easily without special knowledge, and would not feel the pain caused by the syringe.
Meanwhile, it is important for a medicine discharge device to properly administrate medicine. Because of this, the safety and reproducibility of the device are assumed; however, in fact, the intake of the medicine is trained according to inhalation of the user. For the efficient intake of the medicine, the user must learn a proper inhalation technique.
An example of a technique is provided in which a sensor for detecting an inhalation pattern is provided at a body of an inhaler so that the user can learn the proper inhalation technique. The sensor displays an inhalation pattern by using an aerosol containing dummy medicine, and provides visual and auditory biofeedback for the inhalation pattern (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,158).
When the inhalation pattern is detected for the learning of the proper inhalation technique, it is necessary to use a sensor with a sufficiently high accuracy. However, the detection and display of the inhalation pattern using such a sensor is not essential when actual inhalation is performed. The detection of the inhalation pattern during the actual inhalation merely provides the post-evaluation of the inhalation. The detection of the inhalation pattern is desired to be performed in training with no medicine discharged, so as to learn the proper inhalation pattern in the training on a daily basis. In such a case, although the user is expected to inhale the medicine in a manner learned by the training, a simple sensor for detecting the beginning of the inhalation may be provided at the body of the device rather than the highly accurate sensor.
The provision of the highly accurate sensor at the body of the device is a bottleneck in simplification of the configuration of the device.
Also, an air channel through which the discharged medicine is guided into the body of the user may have a negative pressure which is caused by the inhalation and varies with location. To detect the inhalation pattern, it is desired to provide the sensor at a portion near the discharge portion of the medicine (a portion having the same negative pressure as that of the discharge portion). However, it is difficult to provide the sensor in the above-described manner due to structural limitation.